Thousands of Aucklanders $300 richer from energy trust dividend

Thousands of Aucklanders are today being urged to cash in on the Entrust dividend.

This year's dividend is $273 plus $30 from Vector, according to emails sent to customers.

Some customers today were sent links to copies of dividend letters showing payment details and tax certificates.

The final payment is determined by how much lines company Vector paid as a dividend from its profits and how many consumers were in the Entrust area.

That area is the same as the old Auckland Electric Power Board boundaries.

"This year we paid over $95.8 million to more than 351,000 Auckland households and businesses," Entrust said in an email to power bill holders today.

The email from Entrust said dividends were paid to bank accounts or as credits to power accounts, as previously instructed.

The payout went to the person who was the account holder and whose name was on the power bill.

In multi-tenant flats, the dividend would be sent to whichever name or names are on the power bill. Flatmates must decide how to split the payout.

Last year, 346,000 households and businesses received the payments.

Last year, eligible consumers received $303, including a special payment of $20. In 2019 they got $375 in total.

Entrust (formerly the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust), is a trust that owns 75.1 per cent of Vector on behalf of its beneficiaries.

Entrust was established in 1993 to take care of the assets in the old Auckland Electric Power Board during power reforms.

At that time, all power boards had to make changes to the way they were set up.

In the Auckland Electric Power board area it was decided to set up a consumer trust, to hold the assets of the power board on behalf of consumers.

That led to consumers in the Entrust district receiving a dividend every year from Entrust.